Tipping the balance
by DancingIsLikeFlying
Summary: Alternative Point of View to my one Shot "Explanations Aside"- Though this one will be a short multi-chapter fiction. Set during series 14, post "Lost". Harry and Nikki are surprised when there boss Leo disappears.
1. Chapter 1

**Alternative Viewpoint for my One shot "Explanations Aside" although can be read as a stand alone. **

**Thank you everyone who reviewed the previous one shot. Hope you all like this one.**

**Disclaimer: Of course the Beeb own everything you recognise as Silent Witness.**

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In his office, Leo was working through some of the paperwork from his current post mortem, when his desk phone rung.

"Hello, Professor Leo Dalton speaking….I'll send the results over tomorrow." Leo sighed at the detective inspector's urgency for an answer. He was less than happy to talk to some career driven DI who couldn't wait for an answer, especially one who didn't 'fancy' watching the PM. But he obliged briefly.

"Well, it was clear from the toxicology reports that it was an overdose…...to be honest, I'd rather not have this conversation over the phone…I said, I will not divulge intricacies of this case over the phone. So, if you wish to continue this conversation, then please come and see me….yes I will see you very shortly. Goodbye." Leo slammed the phone down a bit too harshly, which attracted Harry's attention whilst Nikki was in the conference room working on another case.

"Everything alright, Leo?" enquired Harry, leaning up against the office doorway.

Leo looked up at his colleague, "Just another impatient DI"

"Ah I see…" replied harry smiling, knowing exactly the kind of person he was dealing with. Leo was routing through the papers on his desk, and glancing through a report on his laptop. Something wasn't quite right in his mind.

Harry approached the desk with curiosity, "Is this the O'Reilly case? The overdose and suspected suicide right? I thought you did the PM this morning?"

"I did but some copper…" He indicated the phone, glaring at it, "thinks they know how to analyse a corpse better than I can, without even taking the time to look at it." Leo leant forward against the desk in front of him, holding his head in his hands momentarily, then rubbed his eyes and looked back up at Harry.

"Leo...perhaps you should take a break?" asked his colleague.

"No, I'll be fine. Anyway, he's on his way over now, so I can go over the post mortem findings and re-examine the body if necessary." Leo stood up and headed towards the cutting room, striding past Harry with a forced smile. Admittedly, he knew he could have made a mistake, he was tired, things were tricky this morning with Janet, their relationship still reeling from Leo's bombshell about not wanting to adopt. But it was unlike him to make a silly mistake on a PM; he wasn't exactly new to this.

"Do you mind if I tag along?" Harry enquired.

"To be honest Harry, this one is all wrapped up, just the specifics to sort out with the detective." He didn't want to refuse Harry, but having a colleague watch you redo a PM and find a mistake was something he didn't want to deal with today.

"Sure, this paperwork isn't going to write itself anyway." replied Harry.

"Exactly" The pair exchanged glances and chuckled at Harry's misfortune, it was his own fault really. Leo headed towards the PM room passing by Zak on the way "Can you get the O'Reilly body back on the table please? The Detective Inspector's coming back into review the findings."

"No problem, Boss" answered the young mortuary technician. He'd only just moved the body and its contents, but he wasn't going to argue with Leo.

Leo suited up to examine the body once more whilst Zak prepared the body again. Once ready, he strode through the glass doors into the cutting room, and looked at the young woman's body.

Jennifer O'Reilly

23

Postgraduate in English Literature

The minutes ticked by as he studied the body and the notes, toxicology claimed an overdose of pain killers, and Leo couldn't see anything to significantly argue otherwise. He scanned the report noting the fact that she was pregnant, within her first trimester. It wouldn't be the first suicide he had seen that was caused by an unwanted pregnancy, overwhelming work load, with no family to turn to. There had been light bruising in various places but he dismissed it, it was expected that it could have been from a fall. Leo noticed his own mistakes creeping in having also missed the woman's smudged lipstick on the crime scene photographs. Conversing with Janet this morning was having an adverse effect on his day.

The signs of a struggle began to creep in. Has she been forced fed pain killers? No…that would be jumping to conclusions and he knew that he shouldn't get ahead of himself, but the likelihood was that it could have been due to the pregnancy. A rocky relationship coupled with an unplanned pregnancy? He stopped himself and resumed looking at the evidence.

His concentration was suddenly interjected by a well-built man arriving in the cutting room. Leo's previous train of thought scattered from his brain.

"Hello, I'm DI Evans" Acknowledged the DI.

"Detective Inspector Evans, I was beginning to think you'd decided not to come… and it's Professor Dalton." replied the pathologist.

"You wanted me here in person, so here I am. What are your findings, Professor Dalton?" The detective walked towards the cold metal slab, where the woman lay, pale and motionless. The room fell silent for a few moments, filling with unrest.

"Well as I said on the phone, toxicology reports came back and proved that the cause of death was an overdose of painkillers with time of death being around 1am this morning" he paused looking up at the DI. He then continued, referring to the bruises, like some artists twisted painting, "At first glance, the small bruises around the mouth, neck and upper arms seemed insignificant but on reassessing their placement in combination with the girl's CoD and pregnancy, there's a possibility that she was in fact force fed the drugs. Unfortunately, I have not found any DNA as of yet for a guilty party. This is partly speculation but I believe it is quite clear in the evidence, and very little else would explain these exact injuries."

Leo took time to breathe and stared at the detective, who was dumbfounded by the reel of information, he had just been given.

"Can you just give me a minute?" asked the DI, as he dived for the exit uncharacteristically.

"Not something I expected from a stud like him, hangover perhaps?" giggled Nikki from behind him, she was standing in the conference room overlooking the PM. Leo hadn't noticed her. How long had she been standing there?

"Nikki!" replied Leo's colleague, his expression riddled with surprise and worry. "I had no idea you were in there, I was just finishing up here…did you get that paperwork on your desk?"

"Yes, I'm just going to get on with it now." she chirped, no clear sign of curiosity. Leo loved Nikki like a daughter, certain her enchanting demeanour would be snapped up by some intelligent male soon enough, a position he always thought Harry would fill.

"On my desk by tonight please, don't want to give the University a reason to complain." He tried to think of anything that would allow Nikki's mind to stray from his post mortem. She saluted momentarily to her boss and waltzed out of the room much to Leo's relief.

The arduous task of going after this detective was not preferable but was necessary. However, after looking around the Lyell Centre, Leo was unexpectedly unable to find DI Evans, and found himself outside the centre, having slid past Harry and Nikki remarkably unnoticed. Raised eyebrows were undesired. The campus was deserted.

He was gone. DI Evans had vanished and Leo couldn't comprehend why. Something wasn't right here. Where had he gone?

_Thud_


	2. Chapter 2

Leo woke up in the middle of nowhere, or what seemed like nowhere. It was a park of some kind. He realised it wasn't just any park, it was one where he used to bring her. He could hear children's laughter. And for one moment the glee of those children brought back every laugh or chuckle that had passed between the lips of his late daughter and wife; sweet Cassie and Theresa. There wasn't a day when he didn't think of them, but he had Janet now, and his two colleagues who felt like surrogate children to him. They could never replace his family, but they helped heal the wound that the accident had left.

His head felt heavy and Leo reached for the back of it, pinpointing the pain as he winced but his fingers were void of any wet or sticky substance. No blood. Always a good sign in Leo's opinion; but he'd done a fair few post mortem's were the wounds were barely noticeable, yet the damage fatal. He managed to bring himself upright and then to standing, stumbling and grabbing onto the tree that he had been slumped against.

His first thought was to phone someone. Leo reached towards his jacket pocket momentarily before realising he'd left it in the office. He noticed a payphone on the other side of the park and rustled around in his pocket for change. A fifty pence piece. Bingo.

On the way to the payphone, he remembered DI Evans going missing. He had one phone call. Police it was then. Leo hadn't noticed his body involuntarily shuddering as he walked. He was in shock but was adamant to find out where the detective had gone. The children in the park had dispersed.

Leo got to the payphone, and decided to ask for DI Evans.

"Hello, this is Professor Leo Dalton. I'm a home office pathologist. I'd like to speak to Detective Inspector Evans please."

"I'm sorry. DI Evans isn't available. He was suspended a few weeks ago…He's not working with us at the moment."

"Excuse me?"

"He was accused of violent behaviour towards a suspect and was awaiting a psych evaluation after the death of his wife a year ago. It was clear he wasn't coping."

"Psych evaluation? No…wait…he can't have…he was in my post mortem earlier today…a Miss….O'Reilly"

"Miss O'Reilly? …you mean Jennifer O'Reilly? …. She was DI Evans' latest partner. We've been searching for him since his suspension, the force have been concerned about his whereabouts and his mental state. Did you say you saw him this morning?"

"Yes…" Leo's heart rate rocketed and he became breathless, knowing his fifty pence wasn't going to last long"…he was at the girl's post mortem…and I told him cause of death…and that it no longer looked like a suicide but a murder…and he left and...Oh my God…this is my fault!" His worst fears were realised; his theory of the pregnancy, the drugs, murder, was real.

"Calm down, Professor Dalton, we're going to try and find him…we'll come and get you"

Leo explained his position as best he could, and as the phone line cut off he slumped to the ground, his breathing erratic. His body was overwhelmed with pain, each breath doubling him over as he held his head in his hands. He knew this was his fault. A murderer had escaped justice. Resting on his consciousness; his simple mistake led to this. He'd made wrong assumptions about DI Evans and now he was paying the consequences. If he did that to Jennifer O'Reilly, what else was he prepared to do?


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone, this is the last chapter. It was only a short multi-chapter fiction. I like to have a bit of mystery. **

**Reviews as always are appreciated. I have another fiction in the works, so I'm going to see how it goes. **

**Enjoy!**

**As usual, everything you recognise as Silent Witness belongs to the BBC.**

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The police car arrived and to his relief it was a simple hatchback of some kind, with blacked out windows. Not great at blending into normal traffic but better than a sirens blaring, panda car that looked like it had been attacked with highlighters. He didn't want to draw attention.

"Professor Dalton, you're safe now everything's fine. We'll just take you back to the station and ask you s…" said the police woman as she helped Leo to his feet and into the back of the police car.

Leo protested "No…can I just go back to the Thomas Lyell Centre please?"

"But Professor Dalton?" replied the police woman. He looked at her. She was new on the job. He didn't want to take advantage of her quiet demeanour but this situation called for it. Leo stared into her eyes, his intent clear, and his emotions battling his stubborn expression. She nodded her head, closed the door and got into the driver's seat.

Leo exhaled deeply and closed his eyes, the face of DI Evans floating in his mind as he drifted off into a light sleep.

He woke up to find the car pulling into the Lyell Centre car park. He rubbed his eyes, yawned and then smartened himself up in his seat. He got out of the car and the young police woman followed him. Hearing her boots on the tarmac and the car door slam, Leo turned to her.

"I'll be fine from here… I don't want to worry my colleagues, when I'm accompanied by your good self." He told the truth and lied simultaneously. It was true he didn't want to worry Harry and Nikki entering the Lyell Centre with a uniformed police escort, but he lied about the fact that it was more to do with the guilt he felt for not realising the situation sooner. There was part of him that thought how could he have avoided this? But every other sensation told him he could have done more. This was why he couldn't tell them. Guilt.

He strode into the Pathology and Forensics department at the Lyell Centre, masking his true emotions. As he came through the glass doors into the office, he was greeted by Harry with his arm around a concerned looking Nikki's shoulders. He looked up at the clock momentarily. _Oh dear_ he thought. It was only now he realised how long he'd been gone.

"Leo!" Nikki cried.

She hugged him intensely, like family rather than a colleague.

Leo was aware he had frightened her. "Nikki?" he questioned not breaking their hold. He looked at Harry confused and then smiled. "Sorry, I had to leave the office for an hour…got a bit distracted." He wasn't going to go into details. The guilt bubbled deep inside the pit of his stomach.

"A _bit_ distracted?" laughed Harry as Nikki broke her embrace with their boss. Leo was glad that Harry brought some humour to the moment. It was hoping it was his chance to avoid having to explain anything.

"Where did you go?" Maybe not. Nikki's soft voice spoke out of concern. He held firm. He couldn't tell them, not until DI Evans was found.

Leo looked at her and smiled "It doesn't matter, I'm back now." He was sure a comforting smile would put her mind at rest for now.

"Don't we get an explanation?" replied Harry. Leo thought for a second, the words on the tip of his tongue ready to tell of the guilt he felt. Fight or flight instinct. Leo went for the latter and headed towards his office.

"Umm…No…" answered Leo, smiling at them. The guilt of not telling them only added to his already bubbling remorse.

Leo entered his office, and with one last look at his colleagues, closed his door.

That was the end of it. At least for now…at least for them. Leo just hoped that the man would be found; the guilty party would be charged and justice served. In every moment since the accident that swept away his world, he yearned for justice. It was what drove him. Today had tipped the balance.


End file.
